From the September quarter 2012, all index numbers will be calculated on a new reference base of 2011–12. This will result in the index numbers for each index series being reset to 100.0 for the financial year 2011–12. Period–to–period percentage changes may differ slightly to those previously published due to rounding and the re–referencing. These differences do not constitute a revision. Further information on re–referencing can be found in chapter 12 of Information Paper: Consumer Price Index, Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2011 (cat. no. 6461.0).

ROUNDING

Any discrepancies between totals and sums of components in this publication are due to rounding.

CPI DATA RE–REFERENCED TO JUNE QUARTER 1998 = 100.0

For ease of comparison, the index reference period for the CPI data used throughout this publication has been re–referenced to June quarter 1998 = 100.0. All index numbers and percentage changes shown are calculated on this basis. This may lead to some minor differences due to rounding from the figures published in Consumer Price Index, Australia (cat. no. 6401.0).

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.

SUMMARY COMMENTARY

THE ANALYTICAL LIVING COST INDEX

The Analytical Living Cost Indexes (ALCI) for Selected Australian Household Types have been designed to answer the question:

'By how much would after tax money incomes need to change to allow households to purchase the same quantity of consumer goods and services that they purchased in the base period?'

In the December quarter 2011, changes in the living costs of employee households rose 0.1% and other government transfer recipient households recorded no change. The living costs of age pensioner households and self–funded retiree households fell, 0.4% and 0.1% respectively, in the December quarter 2011. For more information about the December quarter 2011 ALCI results, see Results by Household Type.

Since the series began in the June quarter 1998, the living costs of other government transfer recipient households showed the highest rise of 55.3%, followed by age pensioner and employee households which both rose 52.9%. Self–funded retiree households and the CPI (re–referenced) both rose 48.3%.

These differences have come about for a number of reasons. The inclusion of mortgage interest and consumer credit charges in the analytical living cost indexes has a significant impact on employee and other government transfer recipient households. The inclusion of mortgage interest and consumer credit charges and the different treatments of housing and insurance in the ALCIs results in variations between the ALCIs and the CPI series. The expenditure patterns of those households measured by the ALCIs differ from those of the overall household sector covered by the CPI. This also contributes to differences in the percentage changes.

For a discussion of the relationship between the ALCIs and CPI, see the Explanatory Notes.

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